Posted 07/08/09 at 09:19:16 AM by Paul Lilly

If you watched Michael Jackson's memorial live online, you were far from alone in doing so. According to Akamai, more than 2,185,000 live and on-demand streams in both Flash and Windows Media formats recorded 3,924,370 visitors per minute as of 1PM EST, and more than 3.3 million visitors per minute overall.

Akamai says it was the second-largest day in terms of total traffic on its network. So what day claims the top spot? June 25th, when 4,247,971 global visitors per minute made a mad dash for news sites after reports started flooding in that the king of pop had passed on.

As one might expect, the influx of traffic caused a lot of rebuffering. The live streams served up more than 2 terabits per second during the memorial service held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Akamai says it delivered 548Gbps of live and on-demand Flash streams. Video stalls were particularly common in Asia, where the time spent waiting rather than watching reached as high as 40 percent, compared to 5 percent in the U.S.

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Posted 07/05/09 at 09:34:27 PM by Pulkit Chandna

While the world has been busy mourning Michael Jackson’s demise, spammers have been trying to exploit his death. Spammers are sending schmaltzy emails eulogizing the King of Pop. Under the garb of emotions is camouflaged some bad old malware.

“The e-mail, which claims to come from sarah@michaeljackson.com, says that the attached ZIP file contains secret songs and photos of Michael Jackson,” Sophos senior tech consultant Graham Cluley wrote about one such email in recent blog entry.

“However, the reality is that opening the attachment exposes you to infection - and if your computer is hit you will be spreading the worm onto other internet users. Besides spreading via e-mail, the malware is also capable of spreading as an Autorun component on USB memory sticks (an increasingly common trend for malware as use of these devices has become more and more popular).” If you find such an email in your mailbox, just beat it!

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Posted 07/02/09 at 01:51:34 AM by Nathan Grayson

We’re sure that, at some point in your life, you saw that part in Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” video where he dances while killing some guy with a friggin’ gun and thought, “Gee whiz, I wish I could be that cool!” Well, you can’t. It’s actually impossible. We checked. However, EA’s free-to-play online shooter Battlefield Heroes may now be your best chance at looking the part with the addition of two Michael Jackson-themed outfits.

If you’re a goodie two-shoes, the aforementioned Smooth Criminal Suit of Ultimate Snazz is up for grabs, and if you play as a bad guy, Jackson’s black suit from – what else – “Bad” is yours for the taking. Both are free for everyone, making this the only situation in which being an ostentatiously dressed Michael Jackson in the middle of a warzone won’t make you stand out. Also, thanks to EA’s charitable action, “Bad” and “Smooth Criminal” will probably be stuck in your head for a decent portion of the rest of your life.

Both outfits are available at the Battlefield Heroes website. We can’t think of anything else to say because “Smooth Criminal” has now taken up permanent (and every loud) residence in our craniums. Comment about… something. Or whatever.  

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